‘Empire’ Ratings Slip Again But Still Top Night; ‘SVU’ Surges With ‘Voice’ Lead-In

It was a night of change galore on primetime last night with a big contestant cut on The Voice (2.4/8), the departure of friends on Arrow (0.9/3), some stealth strategy on Survivor (2.1/7), and newly intimate alliances onEmpire (4.2/13). There also were some ratings changes for the hip-hop drama: Not facing the CMA Awards on ABC this week but up against a special two-hour Voice on NBC, the Fox blockbuster took a 9% dip from its November 4 episode.

With a Season 2 low in adults 18-49, Wednesday marked Empire’s third-lowest rating ever, with only the January 7 pilot and the second episode of Season 1 drawing less in the demo. With viewership of 11.15 million, last night is the fourth-lowest audience of the show’s run. Riding the relative roller coaster of the show’s second season, lead-in freshman Rosewood (1.4/5) matched the low of its October 14 episode. Still, let’s be clear, the Lee Daniels- and Danny Strong-created Empire was miles ahead of anything else on broadcast last night and delivered Fox a demo rating win of 2.8/9.

The top viewership spot by a hair went to NBC with 8.29 million viewers over Fox’s 8.18 million. That was in large part to the 10.20 million who tuned in for a special results edition of The Voice. In the key demo, The Voice was down 11% from the previous night’s show and a low in relation to the singing competition’s usual Monday and Tuesday’s results. Nonetheless, the presence of The Voice pumped up the rest of NBC’ night with Law & Oder: SVU (2.0/6) and Chicago P.D. (1.6/5) rising 33% and 14%, respectively. That’s a season high and a post-premiere season high for both dramas. We might see some more-than-usual adjustments in the net’s numbers as NBC’s lineup was preempted in Portland due to the NBA game.

Coming off the much-heralded Constantine crossover of sorts of last week, Arrow took an 18% fall while fellow CW’er Supernatural (0.7/2) rose 17%.

On ABC, everything was pretty much the same as the last time the net had its regular Wednesday schedule in play. The Middle (2.0/7) was even with its last original of October 28 as was Modern Family (2.7/8) and Black-ish (1.9/6). The Goldbergs (2.1/7) and Nashville (1.0/3) were steady-ish with 5% and 9% slips, respectively, from their November 4 episodes.

There was a little more movement on CBS with Survivor up 5%, Criminal Minds (1.6/5) bopping 7%, and Code Black (1.3/4) rising 8% from their November 4 shows.